Monday 27 June 2011 17.29 EDT
First published on Monday 27 June 2011 17.29 EDT

A 34-year old female journalist has been released on bail after she was arrested by Scotland Yard on suspicion of illegally accessing voicemail messages.

Press Association royal reporter Laura Elston was arrested when she attended an appointment at a central London police station at around 3pm.

Scotland Yard said Elston was questioned on suspicion of intercepting communications, contrary to section 1 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000.

She was later released on police bail to reappear in early October.

It is not known if Elston has ever worked at the News of the World, which up to this point has been the main focus of Operation Weeting.

On Thursday last week a 39-year-old woman was arrested at her home in West Yorkshire by Scotland Yard officers as part of Operation Weeting, on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications contrary to section 1 of the Criminal Law Act 1977. She was released later the same day after questioning at a West Yorkshire police station.

The woman, believed to be Terenia Taras, contributed more than 30 stories for the News of the World as a freelance between 1998 and 2004, although Scotland Yard would not confirm this.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said she had been bailed to return to a West Yorkshire police station in mid-October.

Taras is the ex-girlfriend of Greg Miskiw, the News of the World's former assistant editor (news), who is currently in the US.

She has also written occasionally for other tabloids including, most recently, the Sunday Mirror and, less often, for the Daily Mail. Her last bylined article appeared in the Sunday Mirror in December 2007.

In April a senior reporter at the News of the World, James Weatherup, was arrested and questioned. Weatherup, who has also worked as a news editor with the Sunday tabloid, was released after questioning.

The paper's chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck, and assistant editor (news) Ian Edmondson, were also held in April and released on police bail to return in September.

Days later the Met launched Operation Weeting, after receiving "significant new information" from News International.

The Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, said on Wednesday the Operation Weeting team remained at 45 strong and was continuing its wide-ranging inquiry into phone hacking as well as providing information for the civil court claims.